- Title: MALAWI: RESCUE ATTEMPTS AFTER FERRY COLLAPSES -- DEATH ROLL BELIEVED TO BE 150.
- Date: 27th May 1965
- Summary: 1. GV SCENES OF DISASTER. 0.06 2. SCU PAN WORKERS CLEAR HAWSER PAN UP TO FERRY STAGE ACROSS RIVER. 0.15 3. SV FROGMAN IN MIDSTREAM. 0.25 4. SV TRANSPORT MINISTER, MR. MSONTHI TALKS WITH POLICE COMMISSIONER LONG. 0.29 5. CU MR. MSONTHI 0.32 6. GV ACROSS RIVER. 0.40 The rescue operations in progress. Initials DR/S/MR/
- Embargoed: 11th June 1965 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LIWONDE, CENTRAL MALAWI
- Country: Malawi
- Reuters ID: LVA4UMFKU39K9M5ZDZKSEGS0Z7OH
- Story Text: Some 150 people, including many women and children, were drowned when a ferry overturned on the Shire River near Liwonde in Central Malawi last Sunday. There were 57 survivors.
Most of the passengers were returning from Fort Johnson on the southern tip of Lake Malawi, where they had heard Prime Minister Dr. Hastings Banda address a political rally.
Engineers called to the disaster scene believe the ferry may have hit floating debris. The wire guiding it to the shore snapped and it overturned in mid-stream, throwing the passengers into the water.
Dr. Banda ordered an immediate inquiry. Two bulldozers and a frogman joined rescue workers the following day to try to get a line to the submerged ferry. Only one body had been recovered 24 hours after the disaster. Officials fear that the exact number of dead will never be known. Many of the bodies may not be recovered from the river, which is known to contain crocodiles downstream.
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